Tell us what rally driving is all about in easy terms...

In easy terms? OK then... There are two difficult surfaces that you rally on. Either tarmac - meaning your general kind of road surface. Then there's gravel which is a loose road surface. It takes quite a lot of skill to be on the gravel, because it moves, so you're on what's called a constant drift, where the car slides through the corners. With the tarmac, it's very quick, and the skill is in getting the corners right etc. it's a bit faster going round corners because there's a lot more grip, whereas the gravel may not be as quick, but because your on a constant slide it's probably more dangerous. When you're a rally driver you do both surfaces. Most drivers prefer one or the other surface, but at the moment i'm driving both...
So which surface do you prefer?

I don't know yet, to be honest. I like sliding around on the gravel, it's quite a lot of fun...

Which are you best on?

It's pretty even between the two of them right now actually. So i'm not really shining at either one of them at the moment!

How long is car racing something you've wanted to do?

I've wanted to do it ever since I was a youngster, more or less. Basically, as everybody knows, I grew up around cars, because me Dad owned his own garage. So as soon as I left school, I went to work with him and was involved with fixing them and everything. So I suppose I always wanted to get into racing from then really, but just never had the money, because it can be very expensive. And then Boyzone came along and I never had the time. But now we are an established group we can take the time. The money aspect isn't so relevant any more, because of the position that i'm in, people are prepared to pay for me to drive, through sponsorship...

What attracted you to it?

Well originally, I wanted to do circuit racing, out on the track. But when I went to Ford I was given the opportunity to drive a rally car. I was never really into the rallying at that stage, but then it was quite a bit of fun, I really enjoyed it, so that's how I ended up going in that direction....

How did your sponsorship with Ford come about?

I wanted to drive a Group A, it's called a Group A Escort Cosworth, on the road, as my normal road going car. So I asked a friend of mine to get in touch with Ford to find out the best way to go about it, and then ended up going down to see one of the guys in Ford, who gave me a spin in one of their ready prepared Ford KA's and then asked me if I was interested in doing one of the rallies in it. So that's basically what I did, I did my first rally up in Aintree, near Liverpool, and I finished up in third place. Ford were really impressed with how that went and so basically I've stuck with them ever since...

So although that original offer may have come up because of your profile, there's no point in being involved with the sport unless you have some talent to do it properly. You must have had the talent all along then...

Well yeah, it does work both ways, I get to drive, and Ford get the publicity they want out of it. I was lucky in that I suppose I probably had a bit more talent than perhaps they were expecting, and I came up with better results which is why they didn't mind keeping me on...

Where do you think the talent came from?

Well everybody has a talent, everybody is talented at something without necessarily practising to be good at it beforehand. So I suppose I just happened to have a bit of talent on the driving scene - which was lucky, since I wanted to do it so much!

Was there anyone you particularly admired in the business?

Absolutely not! I couldn't have told you the names of any rally drivers! I didn't really follow the sport before, I just liked doing it...

What did your Mum think about it?

I suppose that mothers are mothers, so i'm sure she'd prefer if I didn't do it at the end of the day, but it's a sport I always wanted to do, and she knows that i've always had a love and a passion for cars. She always preferred it when my Dad didn't do it, but I don't think she'd ever stop me from doing it...

Do Your Mum and Dad come along to your races?

My Dad's been a few times, I don't think my Mum would really be up to coming to a race, to be honest. She'd rather hear the results afterwards!

Do you have a big team working with you?

I have a co-driver called Andy Bull, He's been in the co-driving side of things for about ten years now, so he's more or less a pro. Basically what he does is tell me what angle a corner is at, how far away it is - then as i'm driving that corner, he's telling me how far away the next one is, because i'm going at such a speed I wouldn't be able to do it properly myself

Is it something you have to do a lot of training for?

No, not at all. I suppose that's what I mean when I was talking about the talent side of things. I probably should do a lot of practice really, but I don't have the time. But then i'm going out there, jumping in the car without the practice, and ending up finishing 5th, which isn't bad. If I was going out there with the practice, then I could probably get top 3.

So Is there anyone advising you?

Well there's the other drivers, they'll always help you out, they'll always give you a bit of advice. But everybody drives in their own way, so at the end of the day, it's nice for people to tell you, and information is always great to pick up, but whether you act on it or not is another thing! You just learn by experience, basically. The more you drive, the more you learn, and the better you get...

What are Ford KA like to race for?

The Ford Ka are actually a brilliant machine. As a road car I don't know what they're like, nut as a rally car they're brilliant. For someone starting off in rallying, they're a very affordable car, and they#re very reliable. I've crashed twice at about 80 - 100 miles an hour without a scratch on the car, so they're built absolutely excellently!

Yeah, I was going to ask you about those crashes - you ended up in the papers quite a bit because of those - what happened?

The first crash happened in a forest, on the Enterprise Rally, we were about 18 miles into the first stage and we were going very well. But the car is a left hand drive, which I have a bit of a problem with positioning because of, because i'm so used to driving a right hand car, so it's sometimes difficult to know how to position the car. So this is why I came off the main tyre track onto a bit of loose gravel, and we basically just lost it. We came off sideways at about 80 miles an hour, and we came into a ditch - we kind of cartwheeled, rolled, and ended up on the roof! The two car door were wedged in between the ditch so we had to kick our way out... But we weren't hurt really. I suppose you have a form of whiplash afterwards, end up with a stiff neck, because you are going quite quick and it is a hard smack - but other than that you'll get out walking, no bother at all...

Did it put you off?

Well it happens. Every time you get into a rally car there's that element of risk. Every weekend there's a rally - so let's say 100 cars can start out in the rally. You're guaranteed that 35% of them will crash - that's just the way rallying is. Crashes are definitely not out of the ordinary. You heard about my crashes in the papers because my name is known...

What do Ford think about it?

It's not a problem for them. If you crash you crash, it's just a bit unfortunate if you end up having a bad day, that's all...

Most memorable races so far?

I think all in all i've done about 8 rallies. Since July I've done those two rallies which I crashed in - they were quite memorable, obviously! I did one rally in Belgium where I finished up 7th out of 20 cars. That was quite good because we were just out for a good run and a safe weekend, we didn't really expect that position, so that was a pretty good one, we were happy with that. (click here for more about that weekend) Then I had a race in a Ginetta, which is a kit car with Ford engine and Ford gearbox etceteras, and I finished up 5th in that. That was a race on a circuit in Donnington. My best position is still that first race that I did in Aintree, when I came in 3rd...

Is rally driving as showbiz as motor racing?

Rallies are quite low key. You find more celebrities going into track events, which are a bit easier. Rallying is a different style of driving all together, a different skill. It's not very easy to do. It takes a lot of practice, a lot of hours...

So, what are your racing ambitions now?

I'm just basically aiming to step up the field in motor sports. I have the power to step into a bigger car and race that, but there's no point. I'd rather start at the bottom and work my way up. Get the experience, I think that's the best way to do it. As much as I would love to race a big car, it would be a stupid thing to do because I've got a lot of learning to do yet...

Will you stay with Ford?

i've had quite a few offers, but coming up to the year 2000 I'll be negotiating a new deal with them which hopefully will work out. But if not, hopefully there are others out there who are interested...

Looking forward to getting back to Boyzone?

Very much so! Actually, I can't wait. I was only talking to Keith this afternoon and telling him I was dying to get back out on tour. The only thing i'm not looking forward to are the rehearsals, I'd rather just get straight back out there...

What have you missed most?

I've just missed the craic, the gigs and all that. the gigs are always the best, absolutely, they're brilliant. And they're not very far away now...

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Special thanks to Allison@boyzone magazine